The Eighth Commandment

Those who've been at Jefferson Park for some time know that St. Augustine is my favorite theologian. I haven't been shy about that. What makes him my favorite theologian is, first, he helps me understand Scripture. I don't say I'm an Augustinian because I think he has new and clever ideas. I'm an Augustinian because he helps me know what God has said. But what really made me love Augustine is that he stirred my love for God. That's really what you're looking for in a theological model, or a mentor. Someone who just helps you understand Scripture, but someone who stirs your love for God. I have not been shy about saying I've been stirred by Augustine and his book, The Confessions. That's the key work there. And my favorite story from Confessions is this peculiar story of him stealing pears. If you've read it, it just stands out. It's weird. It's odd. He goes into such detail. And there's a couple of things that are interesting in the story. There's two purposes. One, he wants to show you the power and influence of your friends. He talks about how it's the herd instinct to sin. His friends were such a big part of him choosing to do this foolish thing. Secondly, when he talks about why he stole the pears. What was going on in his own heart? It just shows you the depth of depravity. It shows you the depth of our sin, because he admits, I wasn't hungry. I wasn't poor, I had better pairs at home. He simply had an impulse to iniquity, he says. The book is written as a prayer, it's a prayer to God, but he also has very clear in mind that he's writing to an audience. He wants us to pray with him and follow him in his pursuit of God. And reflecting on stealing the prayers, he prays this to God. Behold, my heart, oh, my God, behold, my heart, which you had pity upon when the bottomless pit. Behold, now let my heart tell you what it was seeking there, having no inducement to evil, but the evil itself. It was foul and I loved it. I love to perish. I love my own error, not that for which I erred, but error itself. Base soul falling from your firmament to utter destruction, not seeking anything through the shame, the shame itself. He didn't want the pears. He wanted the sin. He's confessing how it's not the pairs that attract him. It was actually just the desire of sin that welled up from his own heart. And after the pair incident, he asked the question, who can unravel such a twisted and tangled noddingness? The sickness of our heart, which is deceptive and destructive in itself, who could ever untie this? And he declares. The grace of God, the power of God who can melt away our sin as if ice. Why do you write such things? Why did he tell us about this sin? Why does he confess so openly what he's thinking? He tells us very clearly again, reading from Augustine, writing to God. Why, then, do I set before you an ordered account of so many things? It's certainly not through me that you know them. But I'm stirring up love for you and myself and those who read this so that you so that we may all say great is the Lord and highly worthy to be praised. I said I tell my story for love of your love. See, Augustine gets something. We can't know his love until we see our own sin. We can't tell the story of God's love until we tell the story of our own sin. As we were looking to the sin of stealing, we were studying the Eighth Commandment this morning. Thou shalt not steal. If you're new with us, we've been studying the Ten Commandments. We have a few Bibles there in front of you. So if you want to follow along, we'll be turning throughout the scriptures and I'll be giving the page numbers for the Pew Bible. You can see the Ten Commandments on page 61. One of the key questions I'm convinced I've got to ask throughout this sermon. Are you a thief? Are you a thief? I have to ask that question because people have already told me, knowing what we're going to talk about this morning. Oh, I'm good with that one. If you're convinced you're not going to be convinced you're a thief, go ahead and go to the nursery and relieve somebody who may want to be convinced that they're a sinner in need of grace. It's an important question. Am I a thief? Don't check out too quickly. We have to realize that stealing is bigger than we typically think, first of all, and more so until we see the destruction of our sin, the deception of our sin. We're not going to be able to tell of love for his love. We'll not be able to grow in our love for his love. So, a few questions just to go ahead and start probing that heart that wants to deny that we're thieves. Do you see what you want and covet? As we read from James, are you jealous for things that you do not have? Do you go a step beyond wanting them and being jealous for them? Do you take what belongs to others? This is usually what we think of when we think of stealing. Taking someone else's possession. Now, there's two important categories we think of when we think of stealing. The next two questions. Do you ever treat others without the respect and honor they deserve? If you do, you're a thief. You're robbing them of the honor and dignity that God has granted them. You're robbing them of what God has said they deserve. And fourthly, Do you glorify God according to His right to be glorified? Do you glorify God with every ounce of your being? Do you love Him with your heart, your soul, and your mind? If not, you're robbing God of His right to be glorified. Last week, we looked at what God's Word said about sex. That was awkward because it somewhat makes us blush. We hear so much about sex inappropriately in our culture. We have to talk about it well within the church. This week, we're going to talk about money and possessions. And this is awkward because it drives our idols. This morning, we're going to study the Eighth Commandment. You shall not steal. And here's a summary of our message. God gives good gifts according to his goodwill. We must glorify God for his gifts to us and to our neighbor. God gives good gifts according to his goodwill. We must glorify God for his gifts to us and to our neighbor. We'll have four main parts as we've had throughout this part of the Ten Commandments. We'll ask the question, what is the commandment? Just looking at the most basic meaning of the commandment. What is the basis of the commandment? Third, how did Christ fulfill the commandment? And then finally, how did Christ heightened this commandment? So first, what is the commandment? It doesn't really need that much explanation, does it? Don't steal. Don't take someone else's possessions. Don't go into their home and take what is theirs and claim it as your own. It's not yours, you shouldn't take it or keep it. Some examples of stealing. If a young man at the register at the grocery store, he gives you the wrong change. You get to your car and you realize you've got more money than you should have because he counted the change wrong. It's stealing if you keep it. He made a mistake, but that doesn't give you the right to keep something that isn't rightfully yours. you should return the money mistakenly given to you to the rightful owner. Second, if you borrow something from someone but forget about it and then claim it as your owner or keep it as your owner, that's stealing. If you borrow something and you don't return it, no matter how big or small it might be, it's stealing if you are keeping it as your possession and pretending it's yours. And then as Ron How much do we steal time away from our employer, from our family, taking extra breaks, not being efficient at work? We steal time very easily. So, I ask you again, are you a thief? Are you guilty of stealing? Let's go to the next question, the next main question. What is the basis for this command? What is the basis for the command of it? Firstly, the basis is that God gives all good things and he gives them to us. He gives us to our neighbor and we have to respect his wisdom and his gracious giving his gratitude and in honor of what he gives and who he gives it to. Secondly, we have to respect the rights of others. This is really the basis of a right to personal property that God has given something to someone. He didn't give it to us. And we need to respect that. As we look at all these horizontal commands, honor your father and mother, do not steal, do not murder. These are commands that tell us how to live with one another. We can't divorce them or think about them apart from the vertical commands. There is one God. The reason we don't murder is because God said that life, every life has dignity and honor and worth. The reason we don't commit adultery is because God said marriage is good. It's a covenant you keep. The reason God says do not steal is because He gives good gifts to who He wants to give them to. Now, we've set a pattern. After every commandment, I've gone back to Genesis 1 through 3 and been able to see that the basis of that pattern of Genesis 1 through 3, the foundational books, the foundational chapters of the Bible. And I hate breaking patterns. I'm so wild and crazy. I have to have patterns to keep me on goal. And I was frustrated because I looked back to Genesis 1 and 3 and I was thinking, there's no stealing there. What can we see about stealing in Genesis 1 and 3? And then, as I continued to read it, it jumped out so obvious. There's actually two things we can learn about stealing from Genesis 1 through 3. First, we must think of ourselves as stewards rather than autonomous owners. We must think of ourselves as stewards rather than autonomous owners. Genesis 1, he says, I have given you all that you see. God puts man in the garden to be his ambassador, and he doesn't have all these things to own for his own will, according to what he wants to do. No, he's placed there as an ambassador. He's a steward. He's supposed to take care of them because they're God's things. He's been given a right to rule them, but he's not autonomous. He's to use them for God's purpose, according to God's pattern. So so he looked at Genesis. Everything given to us is given to us for stewardship, not for autonomous ownership. Secondly, and this is the one that I was somewhat embarrassed, I hadn't really thought of before. Second, taking what is not ours is taking from God. God says he can have every. You can have fruit from every tree of the garden. Except one. You cannot take from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you cannot have that you have the right, you have the jurisdiction, you have the privilege of taking from every other tree, every other tree was given to them in their stewardship. But this one. They didn't have a right to that tree. And when they're tempted, when they're deceived, They go and they eat the fruit of the tree. Now, here's the key question. Who are they stealing from when they eat of that tree that they do not have the right to? Who did Adam and Eve, who did they steal from when they went and took something that did not belong to them, something that was not within their privilege and jurisdiction? They stole from God. They stole from God because that was his tree. And he said, you cannot have it. They went and they took from God. That's one level in that they took God's fruit that they had not been given jurisdiction over. More so, they stole from God in another way, and this is a way in which I think we are all guilty. They refuse God's right to rule over them. God has the right to tell us what we do, when we do and how we do it. That's his right. He's a creator. We're the creation. He's a potter. We're the vessel. He has the right to tell us what we do. And by breaking his one commandment at the time, the one tree that made them remember they're not autonomous. God is in control. He said, God, you don't have that right. They robbed him of his right to rule. So I ask you again, are are you a thief? There's been other stories we could look at. Sin of Achan and Joshua. The Israelites, the ancient Near East, whenever you plundered a city, you had a right to the plunder. That was your payment for destroying another city. Unless God says, no, you cannot take those things. God says you cannot take those things to the Israelite and Achan takes them and he pays for them. So the background of this is the fact that God gives good gifts, He tells us what we can have, He tells us what we cannot have, and taking what He tells us we cannot have is ultimately refusing Him the right to rule us. Now let's look to the key question as New Testament believers. How did Christ fulfill this command? How did Christ fulfill this command? When we looked to murder, we looked and we said, Christ fulfilled the command of murdering, not murdering, thou shalt not murder, by himself being an innocent man, and then by being murdered for murderers. Look at the command, thou shalt not commit adultery. And we saw that Christ was a faithful bridegroom. He was a faithful husband who pursued the prostitute. Us who go after other gods. As we look at the command against stealing, we see that Christ is the great gift given to thieves. A key text for us, you can turn to page 896 if you're following the Pew Bible. John 10, beginning in verse 7. 896 in the Pew Bible, John 10, verse 7. So Jesus again said to them, truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. This is the beauty of the gospel. Christ came so that we might have life and have it abundantly. By nature, we are dead. By nature, we are dead in our sins. We are guilty. We're under God's wrath, we have no life, but Christ has come so that we might be given life, so that God will give us life. Christ is the gift that God gives us who are thieves. Those who have stolen God's right to rule us, those who have refused his right, those who have rebelled against him, those who have stolen from our neighbor. God gives us the greatest gift. Paul declares that in Romans 8, if God did not keep back his own son, what good thing would he not give to you? Arguing from the greater to the lesser, this is God's greatest gift. He sent his son down to save us. As we've been studying in Exodus, the great metaphor for God's salvation is stretching out his mighty right arm. Think about it this way, as God stretched out his mighty right arm to give us God's gift of salvation, we decided to nail that gift to a cross. We decided to punish the one God sent to save us. And that's kind of the beauty of the plan. God's plan. He knew that when he sent the Son, that the Son would be put to death, the Son would be murdered. Knowing that that son we murdered, that son would take the guilt that we have for robbing God of his right to rule us. That son would take that guilt upon himself and it would be removed from us if we believe in him. Now, this is a real disturbing truth. Jesus makes a strong contrast. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and life abundantly. Christ comes to give life, the thief comes to steal and kill and destroy. The disturbing truth is that we so often choose to believe that thief, knowing his intention. And we refuse the life-giving gift of Jesus Christ. We constantly believe that sin is going to satisfy us. We constantly believe the lies of Satan, who we know seeks to kill and steal and kill and destroy us. When we should trust Christ. There's a few instances where Christ actually interacts with thieves. I want to walk through these because I think it helps us see the gospel. The first is Luke 19, page 878. Luke 19, page 878. He entered Jericho and was passing through and behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was rich. And he was seeking to see who Jesus was. But on account of the crowd, he could not because he was small in stature. So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was about to pass that way. And when Jesus came to that place, he looked up and said to him, Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today. So he hurried and came down, received him joyfully. And when they saw it, they all grumbled. He is gone to be the guest of a man who is a sinner. And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold. And Jesus said to him, Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is the son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and save sinners." Seek and save the lost. We usually think of the story, we talk about how short Zacchaeus is. In our children's stories, we so often focus on the things that really don't matter in the story. Yes, it makes the story interesting because he climbs a tree, but he isn't repenting of being short. That's not the sin. No, the important thing is he's a tax collector. See, at this time, the Roman rulers, they would choose indigenous people. They would choose someone from their own people to be the tax collectors. And so in Israel, they would choose an Israelite to be the tax collector for the Israelites. In Ethiopia, they would choose an Ethiopian to be the tax collectors in Ethiopia. And those people were considered betrayers. They had turned against their own people to serve the government, and it was for money. Because they would automatically have a power and a prestige and have wealth if they turned against their own people and served the government. More so, tax collectors were known to be criminals. They not only betrayed their own people and worked for the government against them, they would then cheat the people and have extra taxes, add extra fees to the taxes for their own wealth. That's where he gets that, if I've cheated anybody, I'll pay him back. And we need to be careful not to have an unrighteous anger towards taxes. The issue is the tax collectors were cheats. The Jews, they automatically saw them as sinners. What's beautiful about the story is Jesus, he seeks out the sinner, this person who would not have had any friends. Everyone would have looked the other way when Zacchaeus came. They would have avoided him. And Jesus says, I want to come eat in your home. Zacchaeus immediately sees the glory and the power of the gospel. And he repents. We see his repentance. I will give to the poor. I will restore what I've defrauded. And Jesus says, today, salvation has come. Jesus has come to seek and save the lost, those who are thieves and stealing from others. And then what a tax collector is, just mentioning in brief, Matthew, one of the authors of one of the four Gospels, he was a tax collector. He was a redeemed sinner, a forgiven thief. We can look at the cleansing of the temple where Jesus says, you, the priest, you've made the house of prayer a den of thieves, and he throws out those who are robbing those, the Israelites, hoping to come and worship. I want to focus on page 884, Luke 23. Go ahead and turn over there, Luke 884. It's probably the most important interaction of Jesus and thieves. We're looking at the crucifixion. I'll begin in verse 32. Two others who were criminals, as Mark 15 says, they were thieves. Two others who were criminals were led away to be put to death with him. Speaking of Jesus. And when they came to the place that is called the skull, there they crucified him. And the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. And Jesus said, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do, and they cast lots to divide his garments. And the people stood by watching, but the rulers scoffed at him, saying, He saved others. Let him save himself. If he is the Christ of God, his chosen one. The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine and saying, If you're the king of the Jews, save yourself. There was also an inscription over him. This is the king of the Jews. One of the criminals who were hanged, railed at him, saying, Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us. But the other criminal rebuked him, saying, Do you not fear God since you are under the same sentence of condemnation and we indeed justly for we are receiving the due reward for our deeds? But this man has done nothing wrong. And he said, Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. And Jesus said to him, truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise. Here's the true king of Israel, God Almighty, who has come down and taken upon flesh, who is innocent. He's being hung across as if a thief between two thieves. And in the interaction with the thief, it tells us everything we need to know. One thief is mocking him and raving against him. The other thief is a moment of illumination and of grace from God. He rebukes that thief. How can you say these things? Do you not have any fear of God? We are guilty. This man is innocent. Jesus Christ never committed a sin. He was perfectly innocent in every way. He lived the life we should have lived so that when he died there between two guilty men, he could take upon their guilt. The wrath of God removed upon them to be placed upon him. That is how he is able to promise the thief who believes in him. Today, you'll be with me in paradise. There's two guilty men that he was killed between. They're both guilty. What distinguishes them is one recognizes him as the savior, the other does not. One believes and fears God, the other does not. We have to recognize our own sin and see Christ as the only healing solution and savior to our sin. Our last main question, how did Christ heighten the command, how did Christ heighten Now this one is interesting as we look to the New Testament, because Christ in Matthew, in the Beatitudes, in the Sermon on the Mount, he says, I know you've heard it said, do not commit adultery, and then he heightens it. I know you said thou shalt not murder, but he heightens it. He doesn't say that about sealing. He doesn't have one of those kind of statements where he clearly says but and heightens it. If anything, the Ten Commandments already heightens this, because coveting is the internal that leads to the external action of stealing. What I want to do is look at three basic teachings of Christ on possession, because Christ says a lot of very bold and radical things about how we look at things. The things we would steal is what we need to rethink. In the same way that having a proper view and understanding of marriage keeps you from adultery, a proper view of things and possessions keeps us from stealing. Let's begin in Matthew 6, and we'll be in Matthew for a while. That's on page 811. Matthew 6, verse 25. First, trust God to provide for your needs. Therefore, I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, or what you will drink, nor about your body what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air. They neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you, by being anxious, can add a single hour to the span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore, do not be anxious, saying, What shall we eat? Or what shall we drink, or what shall we wear? For the Gentiles seek after these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and righteousness, and all these things will be added to you." God also looked at Matthew 7, 7. Ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened. The key issue is, do we trust God to provide what we need? Now, oftentimes we get in trouble because we want something and we don't understand why God doesn't give us that thing. But do we trust that God, in His wisdom, gives us what we need? He doesn't give us what we should not have for our own well-being. It comes down to, do we trust that God is generous? Does He give abundantly to His children that He loves? The second thing we need to see from Christ is not just that we must be anxious. It's how we treat our possessions. Do not store up your possessions, Matthew 6, 19, you can just flip back or stand on the same page. Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. The eye is the lamp of the body, so if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If, then, the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! No one can serve two masters, for either will hate the one and love the other, and will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. Here, it's moving beyond, do not steal from other people. It's actually saying, how do you use, what do you do with the things that God gives you? So it's not just, here, we're not taking. Now, once you have something legitimate, you've worked, you've earned, what do you do with it? Jesus says not to store up for yourself earthly rewards. Use all that you have for heavenly rewards. This is the mystery of the kingdom. Material goods can actually purchase you immortal treasures. That's the great mystery of the gospel. The things that we get for our work here on Earth, those material goods that we all have, that we have abundantly in America. Everyone has abundantly in America. All those material goods, they can either be used for mortal gain. You will die and you can't take it with you. Or it will be destroyed before you die. Or those mortal things, those material things, can be used for immortal treasures. Giving to God, giving to God from what he has given us, keeps the heart free of idolatry. We should give to God. This is how you gain those eternal rewards. This is how you gain those immortal treasures. You give what God has given to you to him. You use it for his purpose, for his glory, according to his design. Here's some reasons why we should give to God. First, giving to God declares that we are stewards and not autonomous owners. When we give to God, it reminds us We're stewards of what God's given us. We're not autonomous owners. We don't have an absolute right to do with whatever we want with what God's given us. We're stewards of it. We use it for his glory. Secondly, giving to God declares that money is not our God. You serve two masters, it's either God or money. When we give to God, we decide, we make that declaration. God is not our money. It de-idolizes us. And we are so prone to idols. Finally, giving to God declares our hope and joy are beyond what this world has to offer. If all we ever do is spend our money on the things of this earth, we're forgetting the resurrection. We're forgetting the hope that's played before us. We're forgetting that Christ is in heaven preparing mansions and he's returning. What we use our money on determines where our hope is. If you're not giving to God, why? Is it because you're anxious? You're worried that you're not going to be provided for? Do you trust God to provide for you if you give your material goods to him? Secondly, are you convinced that there's a heaven and there really is an immortal treasure? I think that's the real hang up. That's what keeps someone from using their material goods for that immoral treasure. Do you believe it's actually there to be had? And that always brings us back to the resurrection. Did Christ rise from the grave? Are we foolish on March 31st when we gather here and remember the day he rose from the grave? Or are we placing our hope in the only sure and steadfast foundation we could possibly find? Giving to God is based upon our faith in the resurrection. So how do you give to God? How do you use your money for these immoral treasures? You give in the offering. You give to a church that you see is doing a real gospel ministry. Secondly, something we promote here, give to missions direct. Find a missionary whose purpose is to promote, proclaim the gospel boldly. and invest in him. That's an eternal reward. And finally, what we'll hear on Wednesday night, sponsor a child of Mercado. These are orphans and would be orphans we are giving, we sponsor them individually. We've taken this on as a church so they get what they need, but most of all, they're hearing the gospel. Let me pause here. This is a generous church. I recognize I am blessed to serve a generous church, so thank you for your generosity. But the key is, are you giving what you think you must? Are you giving with a true hope and a true reminder this is an immortal treasure that will not rust and will not destroy? I'm going to keep going. Third, use your possessions for God's glory and your neighbor's good. Third, use your possessions for God's glory and your neighbor's good. Ephesians 428 is a key passage here. That's on page 978. Ephesians 428. Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. This section in Ephesians is really interesting. Because all six of what we call the moral commands, the horizontal commands, they're all restated in Ephesians 4 and 5. I think Paul is giving a new covenant law, what I would call the Christ law. He reiterates them and restates them. Here, do not steal. No longer be a thief. And he heightens it. Don't just not steal anymore, but work so that you have something to share with anyone in need. It's working so that you not only bless yourself and earn your honest living, you work to be a blessing to others. It reminds me of John Wesley. When he first became a minister, he was paid 30 pounds. As he began, he lived off of 28 pounds. He was a single man. He didn't have a lot of expenses. He didn't have to store anything for his children and so forth. Most of his life he was a single man. And so when he got a raise of 60 pounds, he lived off of 28 pounds. His salary did not determine his lifestyle. He determined what his lifestyle would be. And every time he got a raise, he looked at it as an opportunity to give more away. His salary went from 30 to 60, to 90, to 120 pounds of his life. And every time he got a raise, he didn't live off of more than 28 pounds. He gave the rest away. Two applications, as we conclude. We steal from the glory. We steal the glory from one another. We steal glory from one another. A couple of real concrete ways we steal glory from one another. When you slander someone, you are robbing your neighbor of a good reputation. When you speak ill of others, when you say things that are not true of other people, when you're gossiping, you're stealing the right of others to a good reputation. When you're gossiping, you're stealing someone else's right to privacy. When you're sharing what other people have entrusted you with, You're stealing their right to privacy when we don't treat each other with dignity and honor. We're stealing each other's right to have that honor that God's given us all made in the image of God. But I really want us to focus on that, I think we all will recognize, yes, we are the thief. The most egregious theft, we steal God's glory. This takes us all the way back to the tree. Adam and Eve, they stole from God. They took fruit that was not given to them. And remember the temptation of Satan. Look at the fruit. It's good to eat. And then he says, your eyes will be open. You shall be as God's. We steal God's glory by puffing ourselves up and making ourselves more than we really are. Thinking that we're autonomous and thinking that we're the king when Christ is the king. We steal from God's glory when we stop and look and praise him for every good thing he gives us. Paul in Romans 1, as he's convincing everyone that they're sinners, the chief sin, they did not give thanks. They did not honor God. We stop thanking God for what he gives us and we think we deserve this. We take credit for all that is good and we blame God for everything that goes wrong. How often do you stop and praise God and say, how could you possibly give me such good gifts? In contrast to how often when something goes wrong, do you look up and say, God, how could you let this happen to me? We do not honor him and thank him for all the good things. Rather, we we accuse him who knows no evil and only gives. Good gifts. I want to conclude with a meditation on first Corinthians, four, seven, for who sees anything different in you, what do you have that you do not receive if then you received it? Why do you boast if you did not receive it? I really wrestle with how to illustrate what it means to steal from God, and well, I found the best illustration in my my daughter's book. This is a child. Praying to God. Dear God, I heard a cosmic story and wondered if it's true. The moon was stealing glory and this is what he'd do. He bragged each night that his great might could make the darkness flee. And like a kite, he scaled the heights and said, hey, look at me. The pompous moon would only croon the songs that praised his name. He hoped that soon the cosmic tunes would bring him greater fame. It's really strange, but he could change his shape throughout the year. His face would change, then rearrange, and sometimes disappear. He loved the thought that astronauts had danced across his face, and cosmonauts and monkeynauts would visit him in space. He bragged that he could cause the sea to rise and swell each day. Then all could see how mightily he pulled the waves away. He'd boast away and love to say, I am the greatest light. Until one day, a piercing ray showed him a shocking sight. He saw his pride and then he cried for all that he had done. For he had lied when he denied his light came from the sun. So now each night a new delight is what he loves the most. Reflecting light with all his might. The sun is now his boast. So God, I pray for grace each day to find the joy that's true in all my days and all my ways in making much of you. Friends, we're glory thieves. As the moon bragged that he had lightened himself, if we brag that we have any good in ourselves, we're not even lying. We're robbing God the praise for every good work he has done for us. We're robbing him of making us his own good workmanship that glorifies him. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. We seek to praise you, our great God. Help us to see your glory, your beauty and your power. Help us to see our sin in your light so that we see it for what it is and its destruction, for its purpose to kill us, to steal from us and to destroy us. And help us see the great power of the gospel that overcomes that sin. Help us to cling to the cross. Oh, great God. We praise you for you are worthy of all praise. Forgive us for not letting you rule our lives when we know it's for our good. Forgive us for trusting the deceiver. Forgive us for not praising you for every good thing you have done for us and for being good in yourself. Help us to be glorifiers and not thieves in the name of Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.